Tatiana the Warrior
International Women’s Day 2020
Fifteen years ago I was teaching English in a town called Sucre, the second capital of Bolivia.
The school was run by a vivacious and intelligent woman named Tatiana. One day Tatiana asked me to go to lunch at her home. There I met Tatiana Snr, who is still one of the impressive people I’ve ever met.
When Tatiana Snr was very young she was the target of a very powerful man’s attention who promised her security and a home. When she fell pregnant, he disowned her, refused to acknowledge her or the pregnancy. Her family was ashamed and kicked her out. She lived on the streets, until she found work as a cleaner. The owners of the house had a courtyard with a staircase that led up to the house. They allowed her to live there, under the stairs, with a newborn.
Over the course of 10 years, Tatiana did all sorts of odd jobs, including doing something that would earn her the most money – she became a boxer. With no training, and no support, she would go into the ring night after night and get beat up, for money.
Many in Bolivia send their children to work at a very young age to help earn money. But not her. She insisted Tatiana went to school everyday. She was adament. Everything went to the young Tatiana’s schooling.
Around that time they met an orphaned homeless girl who had been abandoned. Tatiana couldn’t turn an eye, and took her in as well.
A few years later, Tatiana Snr remarried. But he was a drunk and stole her money. He made her work and didn’t contribute to the house.
Then the Gremeen Bank came to Sucre. They provide microloans to women in groups. Everyone gets a loan but you are all responsible for ensuring everyone pays back their loans. Some women in their business circle bought a sewing machine, one an orange juicing machine, some a shoe shine kit. If one woman was sick, or was beat up by their husband, or had sick children, the other ladies stepped in and worked her business in shifts to help her out.
Tatiana and her daughters planned an escape from her husband, hiding money for years to run away. And they did.
This unbelievable story was told to me in a very humble yet proud home in the white hills of Sucre over delicious Bolivian fare.
This is what IWD is all about to me. The courage of women, the fierceness of mothers, the power of women helping women, and the transformational impact of education.
This story never left me. As the toothless, illiterate, unwell four-foot Tatiana Snr said goodbye to me. We held hands. We cried. Through my white western privilege and her reality, we connected. She is a warrior. Her strength and resolution to ensure her daughter thrived, unforgettable.
Tatiana Jnr founded a successful language school and teaches Bolivianos English. Foreigners can teach English for Spanish lessons. She at that time had educated hundreds. Often for free.
She wanted to get people out of poverty but giving them the skills to talk with the world. She believed having English was hers and their ticket out of poverty.
To all the women and girls who face inequality, whether at home, at work, at school or in society, may we all find our Tatiana warrior inside us, and lift other women along the way.
The image is a representation only and not Tatiana Snr.
